1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling device for a computer component, and particularly to a heat pipe/heat sink assembly suitably used in a computer for cooling a CPU or other heat generating component thereof.
2. The Prior Art
Conventionally, to cool a CPU in a computer, a heat sink is used to directly contact with the CPU thereby absorbing the heat generated therefrom and dissipating it to the air. Following the development of computer technology, the computer is getting smaller and smaller, causing the conventional manner to cool the CPU to be no longer workable since there is no space above the CPU large enough to receive the heat sink.
To solve this problem, a heat pipe is developed which has one end in contact with the CPU and the other end in contact with a heat sink in a suitable location in the computer large enough to receive the heat sink. The heat sink is formed by aluminum extrusion as an integral cuboidal block having a number of fins thereon. The heat pipe is so constructed that heat transmitting medium (for example, pure water) therein is heated by the CPU to evaporate. Then, the evaporated steam runs along the heat pipe to reach the heat sink in which the heat carried by the steam is dissipated through the heat sink so that the steam is condensed to water. The condensed water then runs alone the heat pipe back to the CPU end to absorb the heat therefrom. By such a process, heat generated by the CPU can be effectively dissipated.
Although such a conventional technology is proven to be able to work well, a further improvement is still needed since the heat sink does not entirely enclose the heat pipe so that the heat transmitted by the heat pipe cannot be effectively absorbed and dissipated by the heat sink, and the size of the heat sink cannot be arbitrarily adjusted to meet different requirements of different components needing to be cooled. To produce heat sinks with different sizes (and thus different heat dissipating capability) will increase the cost of inventory and mold.